Body of Work

TRAGEDY TAKES A BITE OUT OF TV NEWS
(excerpt)
March 20, 2005, Barbara Bannon, The Salt Lake Tribune

As competition for the TV news audience has grown more cutthroat, newscasters have grown more interested in entertaining than covering the news. Thirty-second sound bites, rather than in-depth analysis, have become the norm, and issues are painted in black and white. Reporters desperate to attract viewers load nonstories with colorful detail and unwarranted significance. For viewers in search of real news, the trend is worrisome.  This situation is pushed to its darkly comic extreme in Will Eno's "TRAGEDY: a tragedy."

Like most Plan-B productions, "TRAGEDY" is professionally produced, edgy and entertaining.

Anchorman Frank...and three on-location reporters are trying to make sense of an unexpected and inexplicable phenomenon: nightfall....All four eventually suffer a meltdown when they run out of platitudes and question whether they have any identity beyond their plastic TV personas.

Kirt Bateman's direction is tight and understated, and the actors [Colleen Baum, Barb Gandy, Tyler Johnson, Jay Perry, Teresa Sanderson] take a serious approach to the exaggerated material, which deepens the satire...explored in accomplished performances.